On Dec. 5, 2017, Mendocino County joined four other rural communities to launch a 100-Day Challenge on Youth Homelessness. Franklin County (Maine), Gulf Coast (Mississippi), Marion County (Oregon), and Mendocino County set ambitious goals to accelerate efforts to prevent and end youth homelessness among young people in their communities.

The 100-Day Challenge is a project designed to stimulate intense collaboration, innovation and execution in pursuit of a wildly ambitious 100-day goal. The method was pioneered by the Rapid Results Institute (RRI) to help communities around the world tackle tough problems. The work is made possible through funding from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD). In partnership with HomeBase and A Way Home America (AWHA), RRI provides coaching to support each community as they embark on their 100-Day journey.

100-Day Challenges are part of a growing national movement to prevent and end youth homelessness in America. In Austin, Cleveland, and Los Angeles, 413 young people exited homelessness and were housed in just 100 days—exceeding the original goals they had set at the start of their journey. In Baltimore, Columbus, Hennepin County, Louisville, and Palm Beach, 651 young people were housed in just 100 days.

As rural communities often cover large geographic areas, it is recommended by RRI that each community focus on one area within their county and the Mendocino County Homeless Services Continuum of Care (CoC), who sparked the participation in this Challenge, is focusing on the Ukiah Valley. Over the 100 days, a team of representatives from key agencies in the Ukiah area and young adults who have experienced homelessness themselves will work closely together to pursue their Challenge Goal.

That goal in Mendocino County is: “in 100 days we will stably house 70 youth, aged 18-24, including but not limited to systems involved youth and/or pregnant/parenting youth, of whom 10 percent identify as LGBTQ+ and 20 percent as people of color.”

Does that goal seem ambitious? Impossible? At the Launch Workshop where the 100-Day Team set this goal, the tip for knowing when the goal was right was that it should be based on the data and knowledge we have regarding how many youths are currently homeless in the community and be a high enough number to make you nervous or upset your stomach. The pressure of the large goal and the compressed timeframe of 100 days, with the high public visibility and support from coaches, peers, and federal leaders, create the possibility for rapid progress and radical change.

Over the course of the 100 days we anticipate learning a lot about how things are working (or not working) in the world of youth homelessness. How are resources being used? How can we use them to benefit more people? What are we doing right that we can build on? All the things we learn and all the successes we make can be built on and developed in the other areas of the county.

“As we gather momentum in our efforts to end youth homelessness nationwide, communities that undertake 100-Day Challenges are leading the way,” said Matthew Doherty, Executive Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. “We look forward to learning from leaders in these rural communities about the challenges and opportunities that arise as they work to ensure that every young person has a safe and stable place to call home.”

Mendocino County is exactly that: a leader among rural communities. The 100-Day Team has quite the challenge in front of them. Let’s support them as best we can as they find the path to end youth homelessness!

If you are interested in following the 100-Day Challenge progress in Mendocino County, search for “100 Day Challenge Mendo” on Facebook. You can also sign up to receive news from AWHA at www.awayhomeamerica.org. AND you can follow the challenges using #100DayChallengeAccepted and #EndYouthHomelessness on social media. For more information, Maya Stuart, Chair of the Mendocino County Homeless Services Continuum of Care and 100-Day Team sponsor, can be reached at StuartM@mendocincounty.org. Sage Wolf, 100-Day Team sponsor and Manager at Redwood Community Services, can be reached at WolfS@redwoodcommunityservices.org.